Why Liberty?

It seems to me that society is one that moves with the crowd. People look toward the people near them for reassurance to know that they are doing the right thing. The majority of people will not act out of the normal way of reacting to various things in life unless there is motivation to do so. If there is no reward for additional action, then it will not get done. But let me say this, I am a man fixed on principals that hold dear my own values and morals and I am not open to jumping on to the band wagon for monetary or social gain. I believe that it is ones duty to create for themselves their own thoughts. I remember when I figured out that I am a libertarian. Up until my sixteenth year I lived in a bubble. Unknowledgeable of the effect of my presence on the individuals around me, I went through life like a blank slate, an empty vial, a blank notecard. The only taste of intrinsic values ever instilled into me were learned from television, and what they were was to always put the television first and to always move with the crowd. For the average person, the television teaches to always act collectively. The average person takes from television, aspects of life that you can only learn through living. It teaches you to conform, to become a person not marked by self-interest but by established idealology. Up until my sixteenth year, I had not known about the idea of true liberty. Liberty is great, and is what the root of all major social ruling changes are about going back centuries. To the fall of the Roman Republic because of the failure to protect liberty, to the French revolution which strived for liberty, and to the American Revolution which wanted solely liberty and sovereignty for all men, liberty is the root of all revolutionary action. Alexis de Tocqueville more than a century and a half ago, when most people were ruled by kings, declared that the future belonged to democracy. He explained what was needed for democracy to work and how it could help protect human liberty. At the same time, he warned that a welfare state could seduce people into servitude. The fact is we are living in a welfare state, and liberty and sovereignty must be reinstalled into our lives in order to set us all free to live. The Welfare State corrupts the working class and turn then from the upstanding citizens that they then mostly were into barbarians because they are no longer dependent on themselves but upon the collectiveness of society. Just as I said before, people as a whole do not act out and it must take revolution action to change the world as we see it. The internet has seemed to become the world’s highway, a virtual landscape, and an open continent that seems to have no end in sight. Some people dread it, some people worship it. I personally find the internet to be something that can take me away from my real surroundings; a place where I can become open and free and a place where I can be granted true liberty where no one can encroach on the person who I am. I am not ashamed to say that I have mastered the art of surfing and discerning articles that go hand and hand with my ideology; in fact I pride myself on it. It is the internet which has taught me what I know about liberty. That is why I think as the internet penetration rate increases, there will be a larger consensus among the people of the world to strive for liberty.

Until I was sixteen, I always seemed to conform to the thinking of what the establishment always wanted to implant into me. I was stuck in the mindset that a government should be analogous to the hand of god. They should be able to influence anything and everything that they had their hands on. I was what I like to call part of the “sheeple” masses, people who goes along with the crowd and have no self-actualization or introspectiveness.

But changes came in the eleventh grade. I learned about individualism and uniqueness. I begin to comprehend the idea of self-actualization and motivation. I wanted to become my own person, and so I read. I looked toward the internet to learn as much as I can. I started to read anything and all things that had to do with the movement of liberty and individualism. These readings lead me to the idea of every man should have civil liberties that are derived from the fact that he exists. I finally realized the premise that all men are inalienably equal in terms of rights and should be able to practice that without obstruction, thus I started to read about free and open markets and realized that Austrian economics is far superior to the establishment’s Keynesian economic theory. The fact is, economic and social liberties are combined, and they must both be protected equally just like how our constitution protects them. There cannot be a functional society where the government has complete control over the economy. This is an intrusion upon people’s inalienable liberties! I realized I am not what I like to call part of the “sheeple” masses. There is no great damnation in from my conscience for being who I am, nor for what I have in my heart. I do not mind at all. I am no longer part of the people of my country’s stereotype; I no longer allow mass culture to overwhelm my individual tastes. I no longer am a part of the people who feel it is their patriotic duty to impose their standards on to people who have no similarities in living to them – I am creating my own fire and I am creating my own thoughts and I can use my gift of critical thinking. There seems to be an idea that democracy is equal with liberty. There seems to be an idea that because a country can have democracy, the people are free and can create for themselves an environment of prosperity and sovereignty. That idea is not one that I find true. Democracy is not equal with independence and liberty. The doctor of liberty called and said that the idea that democracy is equal with liberty is not true; he only said that democracy is a disease spreader. It only infringes on freedom so as long as the leaders are corrupt – which they are. The American Revolution wanted freedom, the political parties that were formed in the nineteenth century set up democracy and mass party politics, and the people of America never received true liberty. It seems fairly depressing to me that our society is no longer run on ideals. It is run by two parties; my society is stuck between a party that wants absolute world power – and a party that wants absolute power of the world. The position of the people of my society is much more difficult. No media appointed analyst tells me what to think. No political circular reasoning creates my principles. The game of moving with the crowd is never as fun as creating your own path. I do not always feel different. Often times I am just Ben, I am only a fun loving joy seeker, but I feel most different when I think about the state of the country and the deficit that my generation has to pay and the manner in which it has to be done. Sometimes I think everyone does think like me, sometimes I wished everyone had the idea of more free society, and so when I speak, I speak with the idea that all people believe in the open flow of the world, and the art doing; which is not worrying about how one can interfere to make it better, but how one can make it better by not interfering. Sometimes I wish that the rhythm of social development and can play like the rhythm of a clear river, never stopping, and nothing influencing the flow. I have been thinking that the idea of freedom and liberty for all should actually be synonymous for patriotism. Patriotism is standing up for what one believes, and it is not about damaging it. So the idea that infringing on the rights of foreign nations in order to set up democracy is wrong, and not even because of the fact that democracy is not the same thing as freedom. Our nation should not be in foreign countries because it is our patriotic duty to uphold liberty which would be non-existent to the people in a foreign country with our military occupation, and so, the American defense should be that, a defense, not an aggressor, but only a protector of liberty. Sometimes I sit confused, not knowing why people don’t feel the urgency of stopping our society in turning into a democratic dictatorship. I sit there saddened that not everyone is caring about this topic. It astonishes me. Why would anyone not want to live in a world where all people can experience liberty? It’s beyond me.

But in the main, I hope not to feel like a part of a machine. I hope to feel like an independent nail, fixing problems as an individual, but with help from other tools that can create for me a place where I belong. I do not want the world to become a machine, with every function promoted and endowed and meddled with. I do not want a system where every part must be forced to perform successfully. I want a place where all things can attain their purpose, and a place that can create characters and individuals. Perhaps this is why everyone looks and acts differently?

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